Hoosier naturalist Willis Blatchley to be featured at Putnam County Museum

Thursday, October 17, 2024 at 10:54 PM

By Staff report

Blatchley grew up in Putnam County and is considered Indiana’s premier naturalist.

The Putnam County Museum will host an informative program about the life of Hoosier naturalist Willis Blatchley on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 3 p.m.

Blatchley grew up in Putnam County and is considered Indiana’s premier naturalist. In 1879, after taking a six-week training course, he worked as a country schoolteacher and married Clara Fordice, whose relatives still live in Putnam County. He camped and wrote books on the Fordice and McGaughey farms.

For 40 years, Blatchley collected insects in Indiana, Florida and the eastern United States. His research interests were the Coleoptera (beetles and weevils), Orthoptera (true bugs) and Hemiptera (katydid, grasshoppers and crickets). Much of Blatchley’s insect collection is currently stored at Purdue University. Purdue University currently stores his insect collection, and a sample of it is currently on display at the museum.

John Garner, a retired Putnam County teacher, will present the program. He first learned about Blatchley on a vacation in Dunedin, Fla., where the latter stayed during the winter and fostered his interests in insects and collected specimens.

Admission to the talk is free, although donations to the Museum are always appreciated.